Oakland, CA

May 2013

East Bay native Adam Lamoreaux needed a tour of duty in the United States Navy to discover his affinity for malt and hops. While on a tour in Perth, Australia, Lamoreaux discovered craft beers that were a stark contrast to the mass-produced varieties he drank back home in the mid 1990s. On his return to the West Coast, an underage Lamoreaux realized the only way to enjoy beer was to brew it himself.

After an honorable discharge, Lamoreaux began an internship at a local brewery before taking an assistant brewer position at Steelhead Brewing Company in 2000. After one year, Lamoreaux transferred to Anderson Valley Brewing Company. He changed gears a year later by becoming the wine and beer buyer for Whole Foods in Palo Alto, California. By 2005, Lamoreaux was determined to start his own brewery, and he signed a lease at 95 Linden Street in Oakland. After struggling through four years of licensing red tape, he opened Linden Street Brewery in 2009.

The first production brewery in Oakland in 50 years, Lamoreaux and Linden Street have fully embraced the city’s culture, crafting beers in styles commonly found in the Bay Areas during the expansive brewing scene of the early 20th century. He’s even created a beer called “Town Lager”—named for Oakland’s local nickname—that’s only distributed by a bicycle custom designed to carry kegs.